Of chairs and stools
by Boston plant
Summary: Ginny's part time job as a waitress in the Leaky cauldron is not as easy as it seems. This fic is about the various types of customers that she encounters. AU hinny. No Voldemort.


**Disclaimer: All creative rights belong to their original creator(s) and in no way are connected to J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, or Warner Brothers. The author of the following fanfiction does not in any way profit from the story and is written solely for entertainment purposes only. Rights to characters and their setting is neither claimed nor implied.**

 **AN: This is not a beta-ed chapter**. **I got the idea from a Domino's advertisement and I don't own nor I'm related with Domino's.**

Being a waitress at the leaky cauldron is not easy especially when you are dealing with drunk and hungry people simultaneously. In these two categories also there are many variations like angry drunk, drunk drunk, happy drunk, talkative drunk, wallowing in self pity drunk, and many more. Same goes for the hungry type of people.

What's the most difficult part of this job is to handle the above mentioned varieties after they are satisfied with their needs and come down to their normal self. This said 'normal self' is mostly their 'flirty' or 'desperate for a relationship' self in case of drunk men and women -let me tell you a secret handling drunk 'flirty' women is much more difficult than handling drunk 'flirty' men. In case of hungry people the normal self is mostly the complaining type that the food didn't taste good enough - if you will swallow and not eat your food then how the hell can you know the taste of it and therefore these type of people have no right to complain at all. But then there are totally different types of people too.

The ones I find most annoying are the flirty type. It's not like that I'm not interested in dating and socializing, I like it too but it becomes annoying when I'm working at my part-time job without much rest due to my late night studies. So I try my best to ignore them and if needed scare them away. I've never found any man as stubborn as me throughout my life so it doesn't take much time for anyone who dares to try to flirt with me to back away.

Alas! there is always an exception.

The above said exception is sitting -pretending to sit on an imaginary chair- in front of me focused more at his task of looking at me discreetly through his lashes than eating his food. Seeing his auror robes you will think that he would have been successful at his task but no it is obvious that he is looking towards me.

How do I know he's looking at me you ask, I know it because he smiles like a boy, shuffles his already messy hair some more and ducks his head a bit each time he becomes successful in his task.

He rarely tries to talk to me or even have a little conversation with me but when he does he stutter more than he actually talks.

After his meal the man stands from his imaginary chair, wincing a little because of the pain in his legs caused by sitting at his 'chair' for a long time, pays his bill, thanks to me and then with a smile quietly lefts each single day.

Now you may think that this type of flirting is quite common but I'll definitely tell you no it isn't common because I'm being subjected to this type of flirting daily from the same man, around the same time, every day for a fortnight. It's not like he's some stalker because I had never seen him outside the Leaky but even if he tried to be a stalker he will fail spectacularly because he's too obvious.

You may think it must be amusing to see him sit in an imaginary chair in front of the counter but it isn't. After a long day of auror training I'm sure he would be a bit achy at some places since he comes directly from the ministry to the pub via floor. It's difficult to see him all tired and then sit at his 'chair' just so he could be in a proximity to me when most of the far away tables are empty.

Sometimes I want to conjure a chair for him in front of the counter so that he could rest also but I get stopped by my own stubbornness and Hannah's rule which clearly states 'Anyone either an employee or a customer cannot conjure any chair or table. If done the person will be fined and in case of employees their salary will be deducted.' Why this rule because the employees are not slaves and have only twohands, soo they can serve up-to only a certain limit of people at a time and to prevent the Leaky to look more crowded than usual.

Pitying him I ask him sometimes "Why don't you sit at a chair with table or another at another empty stools in the other counter at the other end of pub?"

To answer my question he always says and I quote "I prefer 'chairs' over stools. Chairs helps me to relax my back on it after the hard auror training. And I like to sit and eat with my food over counter more than with my food over a table."

It feels like that he's just as stubborn as me and it's…

It's…

It's ANNOYING!!

But he can't be. The only things over which I've more than necessary pride over are my stubbornness and my Quidditch and charm abilities.

Let's see who is more stubborn me or him. Now he will face my even more dangerous side, the side feared by six men older than me more than anything one of them being a dragon tamer.

 _The war begins now, the war which will decide the greater one, the stronger one and most importantly the more stubborn one._

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Three weeks later I find myself falling for him hard without even realizing it. I don't know what happened but after the war began and I subjected him to my dark and dangerous side instead of backing away or at least getting scared of me he looked more at ease than before and actually started to talk with me every day.

And that my friends was my doom.

After several days of consideration and contemplation over my situation I decided to give him a chance. Since he comes at the Leaky around six in the evening and therefore the seats around the counter are full every day before he comes making him sit on his 'chair' I decide this to be my starting point in giving him his chance and apologizing for my previous behavior.

So I casted a notice-me-not charm on the last stool today around the counter beside which Harry generally comes and sits in his own 'chair' to eat and drink. Today time is passing by much slower than it usually does and it takes around six hours for the damn clock to show 6 pm from 4pm. I look around the pub discreetly to search him and he comes exactly at 6:07 through the floo in his auror robe and heads straight towards the bar counter ready to sit on 'his special chair'.

He notices me looking at him when he is around only four to five steps away from the bar counter and smiles towards me. Today I smile back and maintaining our eye contact lift up the notice-me-not charm from the stool when he was only two steps away from me. He stops suddenly in to look at the empty stool and then looks up at me again in amazement with a broad smile on his face.

I gesture at him to sit at the stool. He stops just behind the stool grinning more widely if possible and just looks at me saying nothing.

Breaking the silence I say to him, "I hope you would like to sit at our pub's stool today rather than your 'chair'."

"It may sound weird, but I was looking forward to it from almost two weeks."

"Well you better hurry up."

He made no move to sit at the stool and stared at me, his eyes flickering at my lips some times, like I was doing.

We were both broken from our reverie by the sound of a fist knocking violently at the counter. I look away from his eyes and saw a little girl sitting at the stool I saved for him. Seeing that she had my full attention the little girl started giving his order of a chocolate cake and orange juice. I heard a groan from someone in between her order.

After I took her order and looked up at Harry (I knew his name after the war started) he was scowling at the little girl from behind her. I snorted (yes snorted not chuckled or smiled like normal girls, I snorted) in amusement, he looked adorable.

He looked up towards me his hands unconsciously going towards his hair and said wryly, "Looks like today also I'll be sitting at my chair." Saying this he put his 'chair' beside the girl and sat on it, giving a little smile to the girl who smiled back sweetly.

I started going back towards the kitchen to give his and the little girl's order. I turned back a little to see him jerk a bit upward startled and then continued my walk to the kitchen.

I will apologize to Hannah later for breaking a rule. I'm sure I will hear a bit from her and from other workers in the Leaky too for conjuring a chair but it will be worth the fact that I knew he was smiling right now.


End file.
